


Arrows

by Eternal Scribe (Shadowcat)



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-23
Updated: 2012-05-23
Packaged: 2017-11-05 21:28:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/411203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/pseuds/Eternal%20Scribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She doesn't understand what is happening first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arrows

She doesn't understand what is happening first.

She is supposed to be dead, right? She isn't strong like all of the others were, and she most certainly isn't fierce. She knows almost nothing about weapons and only ended up shoving the arrow up into the other boy's throat -- the _Career_ \-- out of grief and a sudden shock of rage.

Grief and rage because he is responsible for the death of the only friend she had ever made outside of her own District.

\--killed while she was protecting _her_ from getting hurt --

So when the hovercraft shows up and she is clutching the bloody arrow in her hand --

\--retrieved because even in death she couldn't allow him to touch it. It wasn't his. It was _hers_ and now it is hers --

\-- her first instinct is to run because this is still the Arena and instincts have managed to somehow keep her alive. But she can't leave her dead friend behind. That would be wrong after everything that has happened. So she stands her ground by her friend, clutching the bloody arrow like it is the only thing that makes sense to her right now.

When she hears them announcing her as the victor, she is confused. They're wrong somehow. She's not supposed to be the Victor. Small girls from outlying districts are never the victors in anything. They are the bait and the victims.

She isn't too confused, though, to demand that her friend's body be retrieved at the same time she is. She is not going to let her be left behind -- not after everything that she had done to keep her alive. Her friend deserves so much better than to be treated like she is disposable. In the hovercraft on the way back to the Capitol, she kneels next to Katniss' body and re-braids her hair. Any time someone starts to protest her actions, she brandishes the arrow at them and they let her be.

At only twelve, she's the youngest Victor of the Games in their history.

They allow her to keep the arrow. It becomes her personal symbol; her own token.

Cinna comes to her where she is with her stylist and offers to make the arrow into something wonderful for her. She gives him the arrow because she knows he loved her, too. She remembers how Cinna took care of Katniss and knows that he will not let anything bad happen to the arrow that now means so much to her.

Cinna has the arrowhead made into a necklace so that she can wear it all of the time if she wishes to.

The rest of the arrow is used so that he can create a new personal token for her --

\-- for _them_ \--

\--crossed arrows with a fire rising behind them. It's precious and personal and it's hers. With her wearing a token like that, she knows that no one will forget the sacrifice that her friend made in the Arena. No one will dare forget her.

That makes her feel better, that others will remember Katniss.

When she asks for a second necklace and pin set to be made by Cinna from another one of Katniss' arrows from the Arena, no one questions her as to why. It seems like such a simple request coming from one as young as she is. It becomes a new story in the Capitol -- the Victor who wants her competitor remembered.

\-- _"Katniss was never my competition,"_ she sobs when only those she trusts can hear her. _"She was my friend and she should be here instead of me."_

It is Haymitch who helps her people soothe her tears. _"She would never have wanted you to die, sweetheart,"_ he tells her.

Haymitch, who doesn't smell like liquor even though he has lost both of his people. --

She has the second set in her rooms within two days after having asked for them. She puts them in a small box, already making plans for where they will be going. She wants to ask to keep one of Katniss' arrows intact as a souvenir of everything that she has experienced inside the Arena, but she doesn't. Outside the Arena, President Snow doesn't want children to have weapons.

Children.

She doesn't think that she will ever feel like a child again.

People died all around her in that Arena. Her fellow tribute died before she and Katniss could do anything to help. She had seen people kill each other in that place. She had killed.

No, she knows that she will never again be a child. The Capitol has seen to that.


End file.
